1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a combination vapor hair setter of particularly arranged components in a closed box-shaped housing with a plurality of hair rollers supported therein and removable water reservoir carried in the housing which may be filled at the sink and replaced in the housing. A heated boiler is connected to generate steam received from the reservoir. A cup-shaped support carries a single roller, preferably foam covered, to soak with steam rising from the boiler to prepare the roller for use. To avoid back splashing by misuse of the reservoir being poured directly into the roller support, a one-way flexible flow restrictor is provided between the roller support and the boiler to permit water flow into the boiler and allow steam only flow out of the boiler to the roller.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to provide hair setters of an enclosing box-shaped housing in which a multiplicity of rollers, such as toothed hard plastic or soft foam-covered, are supported for various sized curls. Generally, foam rollers are used individually and are placed in a suitable support within the box to be saturated with steam when they are then removed and used in the hair. Both hard and soft roller arrangements are known in one form or another and have been used for many years. Some use a replaceable reservoir that can be filled at the sink, placed in the appliance housing, and then supply the water for steam by various internal connections. Misuse of these arrangements is possible because the removability of the reservoir means the user can dump water directly from the reservoir into the roller support where it can back splash rather than replace the reservoir in the housing so it can be measured by a controlled pump to ensure only the proper amount is received by the boiler. Also, constant pumping may flood the boiler and thus inhibit proper steam flow whereas only one measured charge or slug of water is necessary per roller. Previous systems use a continuous steam source in which control is obtained by removal of the roller from the steam path or by a mechanical shut-off of the steam flow. Because this general combination with foam roller construction requires such a short exposure to the steam flow, usually a few seconds, variations of the time of exposure to the steam flow occur easily resulting in wide variations in curling performance. The present invention achieves repeatable results by controlling the amount of steam passed through the roller by depositing specific volume of water into a boiler, converting it to steam of a fixed volume and passing it through the roller. This sequence is repeated serially until the desired number of rollers have been conditioned when placed in the hair. Most "mist" hair setters heat all the rollers at once, or in parallel, requiring a significant heat-up time. An improved hair setter avoiding these misuse possibilities is desired to prevent both flooding with poor steam flow and the back splashing of water into the housing and possibly on the user rather than steam only to the hair roller.